Lunsford grateful for chance to play football at WBU

By SKIP LEON Skip.Leon@hearstnp.com

Published 9:55 am, Saturday, July 4, 2015

Photo: Skip Leon/Plainview Herald

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Former Plainview High School player Eric Lunsford is expected to start at right tackle for the Wayland Baptist football team this season. The 25-year-old Lunsford also wrestles at Wayland and is a professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter. less

Former Plainview High School player Eric Lunsford is expected to start at right tackle for the Wayland Baptist football team this season. The 25-year-old Lunsford also wrestles at Wayland and is a professional ... more

Photo: Skip Leon/Plainview Herald

Lunsford grateful for chance to play football at WBU

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Eric Lunsford is thoughtful, articulate and extremely grateful for the opportunities he has been afforded. His latest opportunity will be to play football for Wayland Baptist University this year. He has not played since the 2008 season, his senior year at Plainview High School.

Lunsford, 25, is a high-energy person. He said he needs to channel that energy into positive pursuits. And there are many in his life. In addition to being married and attending WBU full-time, he is on the WBU wrestling team. He also maintains a career as a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter where he has a 4-1 record. He will return to the ring after almost a year to the day on Saturday when he takes on Dale Mitchell in Fury Fighting Championship 7 in Humble, Tex.

Lunsford welcomes the daily challenge.

“I would much rather be juggling all these things than just kind of sitting around wishing that I had more stuff to juggle,” Lunsford said. “I’ve definitely been there. That time when I was making the transition in my life to adulthood, I was just kind of sitting wondering what to do.”

That time came after he graduated from Plainview High School and was trying to figure out what to do with his life.

Lunsford’s journey to play football for Wayland, where he is expected to be the starting offensive right tackle this season, is a fascinating one.

He played football for two years at Plainview High School. He experienced the highs and lows of the sport. He was a substitute on the 2007 team that went to the playoffs, the last Bulldog team to advance to the postseason until last year. As a starting offensive lineman in 2008, his team finished with a 1-9 record.

Lunsford said he weighed 385 pounds when he played in high school and then gained weight after graduation which put him over 400 pounds.

He did not have any opportunities to play football after high school and there was no Wayland Baptist football program yet. So, looking for a way to stay in shape, he began a martial arts program. He said Juan Amaya, a local martial arts instructor, was putting together a jiu jitsu team. Lunsford began studying jiu jitsu to physically stay in shape, but found there was a spirituality to the discipline, as well.

He also credits his martial arts instructors with helping him along the path to manhood.

“After high school I had a hard time getting settled and just trying to make that transition from high school to adulthood,” Lunsford said. “(Martial arts) was just something that was there. And those guys were older than me. They helped show me how to be a man.

“I grew up without a dad. Coaches have always been my father figures. Thank God they’re there. Because I’m kind of a free spirit. It’s always been good to have those Mr. Myagi’s (a reference to the movie “The Karate Kid”) in life to help me to channel my energy into something good.”

Eventually, Lunsford said, he made his way to X-treme Karate and met Tommy Alcozer, who trains a number of local and area MMA fighters.

“Tommy Alcozer put me to work. And I love to have people that try to push me to be a better person,” Lunsford said.

Lunsford took his first amateur fight in 2009 and won. He finished his two-year amateur career with an 8-3 record. He then won two of three amateur kickboxing bouts. He began his professional MMA career in August 2013, the same time he began attending Wayland Baptist. He won his first four fights before losing last July 12.

Lunsford explained the spirituality he discovered doing martial arts.

“I think that every single day, for everybody, it’s a fight,” he said. “You wake up every day and it’s like you’re fighting the day. You can either let a day beat you down or you can beat the day. You can go out there and make the most of it. I think fighting taught me how to live life one day at a time.”

It was while training at X-treme that Lunsford met Albert Tapia, a former WBU wrestler and aspiring MMA fighter. He said Tapia hounded him for a year to get into college and try out for the wrestling team. Lunsford told Tapia he wasn’t sure he could do that with his schedule, which included working at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

“Albert was on me for at least a year. He would never stop. And I thank God for him,” Lunsford said.

So, in the summer of 2013 Lunsford met with Wayland Baptist wrestling coach Aaron Meister. While Lunsford was kind of wishy-washy about whether he wanted to attend school and wrestle, Meister pinned him down to make a decision.

“Coach Meister is a unique guy,” Lunsford said. “Just like Albert, he wasn’t going to allow me to walk out of there saying I’m not really sure. He was like, ‘Do you want to come to school, do you want to wrestle, yes or no?’ I said yes and he said okay, let’s go.”

And just like that, Lunsford was on his way to the admissions office at WBU. He said there were mixed feelings as he made that journey.

“Parts of me were like, ‘Wait, wait, wait,’” Lunsford said. “The other half was like, ‘Let’s take this risk.’ I knew that God was going to have my back, so I dove in head first.”

During wrestling practices, Meister stressed to Lunsford how having wrestling skills would help him as an MMA fighter.

Lunsford was wrestling this past season when once again he encountered someone who posed an opportunity for him. This time, it was WBU football player Isaiah Bryant. He asked Lunsford if he’d be interested in playing football for the Pioneers.

It was an idea Lunsford had toyed with for a while, although he would not admit it.

“I had been watching Wayland football since 2012,” Lunsford said. “And I could always hear in the back of my head this voice that said, ‘You need to look into this.’ I tried my best to focus on wrestling and MMA because it takes so much. I didn’t want to spread myself too thin.”

But like Tapia earlier in Lunsford’s life, Bryant was persistent. And though Lunsford told Bryant he was happy with his situation, Bryant convinced him to just talk to the football coaches.

First, however, Lunsford had to tell Meister.

“One day we were talking about it and Coach Meister walked up behind me and heard us talking about it,” Lunsford said. “(Meister) comes around and he’s like, ‘You want to play football?’ And my heart kind of dropped. Coach Meister is the most intense guy on campus. I was just scared to death. Coach Meister had brought me along to Wayland. I felt like all my success I owed to Coach Meister. I didn’t want to say to Coach Meister thanks for everything, but I’m leaving to play football now.”

Meister told Lunsford he needed to go play football.

“He was so, so supportive,” Lunsford said.

So, after wrestling season ended in March, Lunsford went to talk with WBU offensive line coach Tyler Duggins, and then head coach Butch Henderson.

Lunsford didn’t want to sit on the bench. He wants to play and contribute.

“I don’t want to cheer. I want to compete,” Lunsford said. “I feel like I can be the best man at any spot on the field within my expertise. I’m willing to put in the work. I went and talked to Coach Duggins and he was like, we can definitely get you in. He gave me a helmet and I went to work.”

Lunsford distinguished himself during spring football and heads into preseason practice as the starting right tackle. And now the psychology major will have the chance to play once again in his hometown. The latest opportunity in his life journey leaves him overwhelmed.

“It’s a gift from God and a second chance,” Lunsford said. “I don’t even feel like I deserve it because I didn’t do anything to change that 1-9 (senior season). After we did that I didn’t respond very well. I put on another 20 or 30 pounds and was just sitting there feeling sorry for myself.

“For me to be able to throw those chains off and to stand up and claw and scratch to where I’m at and to have this opportunity, I can’t even put words on it. I just thank God and I will do everything to take advantage of this opportunity this time around.”

Lunsford takes that opportunity very seriously.

“I love Plainview, I love these people, I love this university,” he said. “I can’t even describe how much of an honor it is to represent the school.”